Engage and inspire people about engineering

The Royal Academy of Engineering has opened the latest round of its Ingenious Public Engagement Grant scheme, with funding of up to £30,000 available for groups, individuals or organisations who have a bright idea for engaging the public with engineers and engineering.

2018 has been designated by government as the Year of Engineering and the Academy is especially keen to receive applications for inventive public engagement projects that aim to reach diverse and under-represented audiences, including communities in deprived parts of the country, and projects that will engage with people of different genders, ages and ethnic backgrounds.



The Ingenious Programme funds imaginative projects that connect members of the public with engineers and helps those engineers to communicate their expertise and enthusiasm and tell the story of the wide range of UK engineering.

Funding of between £3,000 and £30,000 is available for projects to:

* Inspire creative public engagement with engineering projects
* Motivate engineers to share their stories, passion and expertise with wider audiences and develop their communication and engagement skills
* Raise awareness of the diversity, nature and impact of engineering amongst people of all ages and backgrounds
* Provide opportunities for engineers to engage with members of the public from groups currently under-represented in engineering

Ingenious has funded over 200 projects to date, providing opportunities for over 5,000 engineers to take part in public engagement activities, to gain skills in communication and to help bring engineering to the very centre of society.

Ingenious projects have reached over 2.5 million members of the public.

Ingenious panel chair, and renowned engineer and broadcaster, Professor Mark Miodownik MBE FREng said: “Ingenious is an important part of the Academy’s work to make engineering accessible to everyone. No matter what part of the country you are in, if you are passionate about inspiring the next generation then you should apply – especially in 2018, the Year of Engineering.”

Applications are welcome from engineers and creative or public engagement professionals keen to explore ways to provide public engagement training and opportunities for engineers and to engage new groups of people with their work.

The scheme closes at 4pm on Monday 1st October 2018.